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frequency pulse every time,” Andrews says. “It’s incredibly repeatable, so you can create a more accurate, consistent weather return.”
“That display consistency is one of the first things a pilot will notice about a new solid-state radar versus an old magnetron-based system. Magnetron units can vary or drift – they’re very inconsistent – some pulses are super- hot or off-frequency so the image can change from one sweep to the next,” he continued. “Not so with digital. The picture is very consistent, which makes it easier for the pilot to interpret what the weather really looks like.”
Many Happy Returns
A sharper, more detailed display isn’t the only benefit solid-state tech- nology and advanced signal processing bring to onboard weather radar. As you no doubt know, doppler capabilities have opened the door to many other ride- and safety-enhancing features.
“Providing hazardous weather avoid- ance information is a major benefit of solid-state radar,” Gupta says. “Hail, turbulence, predictive wind shear and lightning are all hazards modern ra- dars can help pilots avoid. We also have a built-in terrain database in our larger systems that can automatically remove ground-clutter from the display. That further enhances the weather picture.”
Ground clutter returns have always been a major headache for pilots. Tweaking that antenna tilt just right to get all the precipitation without false ground returns can drive you to distraction. Never a good thing in
6 • TWIN & TURBINE / September 2020
an aircraft’s cockpit. No matter what the weather.
To help eliminate the problem, and reduce pilot workload, many newer radars feature an automatic tilt control function of one form or another.
“Our newest radar, the GWX80 has an Auto Mode, which is extremely sophisticated. It’s a set-and-forget type system,” Andrews explained. “You just turn it on, and the system will set the antenna at the optimal view of the air in front of the aircraft. Pilots really love it.”
It does, of course, have a manual tilt control for instances when pilots want to pitch the antenna up to get a view of weather above their aircraft: Especially when they suspect hail to be involved. As you might guess, this can be as challenging as tilting downward to remove ground clutter.
Yet again, digital technology is pro- viding a solution in the form of the Vertical Profiling capability found on many of BendixKing’s new-genera- tion radars.
“In a normal scan, we are looking at the entire volume air of front of the aircraft that is sliced into lateral pieces, and the radar displays it in a top-down view,” Gupta stated. “With vertical profile, we can slice it along the azimuth so you can see the vertical signature of the precipitation within that cell. Hail above the aircraft can be very dangerous.”
“We had a pilot flying a Falcon 8X recently. They were at FL450 and the vertical profile was painting a
High-level features like ground clutter suppression, turbulence, and hail and lightning prediction are found in Garmin’s GWX70 and GWX80 (pictured).
IMAGES COURTESY OF GARMIN.
supercell topping off at over 60,000 feet,” he continued. “Needless to say, they planned a deviation course well around that cell.”
Navigating Your
Digital Radar Upgrade Path
No doubt that with all of the new- generation features and benefits they provide, upgrading to a solid-state ra- dar system is high on every pilot’s wish list. But, as you may well expect, not all features are available in all radar systems. A big determiner is the size of the radar antenna that your aircraft can accommodate.
The larger the antenna diameter, the more returning pulses the system can collect. And it’s those returning pulses that the system uses to create the display. More pulses equal a more accurate display. Of course, along with the size of the antenna, there’s also the avionics you currently have in your panel to consider.
“If you want to upgrade to some higher-level features like ground clut- ter suppression, turbulence, and hail and lightning prediction found in our Garmin GWX70 or GWX80, you need to have at least a Garmin GNS display. If you have G1000, then it’s an easy upgrade,” Andrews said. “The issue with trying to integrate new radars with legacy displays is that the older panel units don’t even have the bezel knobs or buttons to control the new display functions.”
Regarding upgrading legacy RDR- or RDS- systems from Honeywell/ BendixKing, Gupta says that systems